Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I spent a rather slow day birding mainly in the Ocean Shores area along with a few stops made on our ways home between Brady Loop Rd. and Wenzel Slough Rd. near Satsop. We did have a few highlights for the day and encountered fairly good weather at times,especially with partial clearing skies at Ocean Shores along with scattered rain showers throughout the day and moderate winds. Ocean Shores in general was quite slow with the lack of shorebird,waterfowl,gull and large waterbird flocks,but we located a few highlights at a few stops made. Our best highlight of the day came along Foster Rd. within the Brady Loop Rd. complex where we encountered a male Am.Kestrel visiting a kestrel nestbox,in which the bird was observed at entrance hole with some unknown prey and occasionally looking into the hole within a 10 minute observation. The bird then flew to a metal fenceline across the road from the nestbox and perched,then flew west towards Brady Loop Rd. and perched again on MPH sign,then from there flew into a residence at the corner of Brady Loop Rd. and Foster Rd. This was our first personal encounter of observing an Am.Kestrel at any of the several nestboxes within the Brady Loop Rd. complex and the bird we observed could possibly occupy the nestbox with a female,which we did not see. Hopefully the birds will breed successfully breed along Foster Rd.

Throughout the day we checked several key areas beginning at the Hoquiam STP,then onto Ocean Shores then working our way back home and ending our day along Wenzel Slough Rd.,which was quite slow possibly as a a result in the time of day. At Ocean Shores we relocated the 3 PALM WARBLERS previously reported by Jason Paulios on the 4th of March in the Scotch Broom thicket immediately north of the Ocean Shores Marina with minimal effort made in locating them during our rather short visit to the location. We observed two birds together and a single bird alone in two seperate locations within the thicket,so perhaps they may linger for some time. The single bird was briefly heard giving it's rather sharp "chip" call note,as the bird elusively foraged low in the Scotch Broom thicket. Good numbers of waterfowl were again noted along the Brady Loop Rd. complex,mainly along Foster Rd. consisting mainly of Northern Pintail,Mallards,Green-winged Teal,and Am.Wigeon in that order of abundance.

Notable highlights during the day that we encountered included the following:

Red-throated Loon
2 at the Ocean Shores Game Range

Pacific Loon
8 off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Tundra Swan
42 along Brady Loop Rd.
30 along Keys Rd.(accessed off of Hwy.12 near Satsop)

Trumpeter Swan
10 along Wenzel Slough Rd.
6 along Keys Rd.

Greater White-fronted Goose
1 adult at the Ocean Shores Golf Course

Eurasian Wigeon
1 male at the Ocean Shores Golf Course
1 female at Perkins Lake(Ocean Shores)

Canvasback
1 pair at Perkins Lake(Ocean Shores)

Black Scoter
3 at the Ocean Shores Game Range

Osprey
1 along Hwy.12 at a regular nestsite at Montesano(very early date for location)

Cooper's Hawk
1 along S.R.109 near Gray Gables

Rough-legged Hawk
1 light-morph bird at the Hoquiam STP
1 along Foster Rd.(Brady Loop Rd.complex)

Semipalmated Plover
13 foraging wit 2 Dunlin along the exposed shoreline at incoming tide bordering Grays Harbor and the Hoquiam STP

Rock Sandpiper
12 at the Ocean Shores Jetty(with 23 Surfbirds and 10 Black Turnstones)

Black-legged Kittiwake
42+ off the Ocean Shores Jetty

Rufous Hummingbird
1 pair at Ocean Shores

Red-breasted Sapsucker
1 along Middle Satsop Rd. north of Brady

Pileated Woodpecker
1 east of Middle Satsop Rd.(near the Grays Harbor-Mason Co. line)

Tree Swallow
85+ along Brady Loop Rd.
12 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Violet-green Swallow
8 along Brady Loop Rd/

Barn Swallow
5 immatures along Marine View Drive(Ocean Shores)

Western Scrub Jay
2 at Brady

Western Meadowlark
1 along Brady Loop Rd.

Purple Finch
1 at Ocean Shores


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net

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